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Sep 5, 2019

Thursday, September 5th 2019 Kristian House

Theme: Two's Company or an enemy! Two-handed games, let's go look:

17A. *Brain trust member: MASTERMIND. Fun game, you try to match the colors and order of four hidden pegs set by your opponent. "Mastermind" is also a long-running quiz show in the UK; the first few seasons were won by university professors, diplomats and such. Then Fred Housego, a London taxi driver, stormed the competition, he won and became a popular figure appearing on TV and radio. Even though he was an emerging media star he still continued to drive his cab.

22A. *Nixon's cocker spaniel: CHECKERS. Not many alternative clues for this one. The only one I can think of is too "British". (the Prime Minister's "official" country residence). Why the PM needs a country residence is beyond me.

38A. *Influential record company named for co-founding brothers Leonard and Phil: CHESS. A great story and anyone lovers of R&B or Rock 'n Roll will know Chess Records. Interestingly, they also had a subsidiary label "Checker" - shame it wasn't the plural to match 22A.

This is their release "Rocket 88" with Jackie Brenston, a single generally accepted as the first "Rock and Roll" release

60A. *The USS Iowa, e.g.: BATTLESHIP. The game used to be simple, played on graph paper, and calling out squares to your opponent, but it's got a little more complicated, battery powered and unnecessary. Does there have to be an app for everything? The battleship "Iowa" found a home here in Southern California in San Pedro harbor.

11D. With 28-Down, words to a cheater ... or an honest hint to the answers to starred clues: TWO CAN PLAY ...

28D. See 11-Down: ...AT THAT GAME
This was nicely done. The five theme entries were clued without any reference to the games, and the down reveal was a nice surprise when it all came together. Great job by Kristian and a lot of fun fill to round things out.

Across:

1. Isla surrounder: AGUA

5. Real cutup: JOKER

10. Italian volcano: ETNA. There's another four-letter volcano in Italy in the Lazio region, Vico, and Lake Vico occupies the caldera,it's safe to say it hasn't blown its top for quite some time, if it does all that water would be giving Rome a hot shower.

14. TV series that had flashbacks, flash-forwards and multiple timelines: LOST

15. Kemper of "The Office": ELLIE

16. Truant GI: AWOL

19. Meander: ROVE

20. Afflicted with illness, say: STRICKEN

21. Gastric woe: ULCER

25. PC key: ALT

26. Reel Big Fish music genre: SKA

29. Pigs out (on): ODS

30. Flying frenemy of Godzilla: RODAN. "Frenemies" because they usually start out fighting each other in the movies, then team up to defeat a bigger threat to them both.

67. Corddry of TV's "Mom": NATE. Crosses all the way, as is my wont with TV-related clues.

Down:

1. Help for the needy: ALMS

2. Animal on the Cubs' 2016 World Series rings: GOAT. I've been to the original Billy Goat Tavern on Lower Michigan Avenue. Simple enough place, cold beer and the "cheezborgers" of Saturday Night Live fame.

3. Space Race inits.: U.S.S.R.

4. Room often with a slanted ceiling: ATTIC

5. Pulled quickly: JERKED

6. Early Mexicans: OLMECS

7. "Hogan's Heroes" colonel: KLINK

8. German article: EIN

9. Crimson, e.g.: RED

10. Bluegrass legend Scruggs: EARL

12. Original: NOVEL

13. At the ready: ALERT

18. Heart sonograms, familiarly: ECHOS

21. Food safety agcy.: U.S.D.A.

23. Paleozoic and Cenozoic: ERAS

24. Retina cells: RODS

26. Exchange barbs: SPAR

27. Curly cabbage: KALE

31. Church area: APSE

33. The Cardiff Giant, notably: HOAX. A great story. The hoax was exploited by one David Hannum, who coined the phrase "there's a sucker born every minute" when he discovered people were paying to see a copy of the giant, created by P.T. Barnum. Hannum sued Barnum, but the case was dismissed by the judge who ruled that Barnum had just faked a fake.

Look him up on Wikipedia. I'd post the picture here, but some of delicate dispositions might be alarmed by the naked giant's nether regions. If the giant is ten feet tall, his well-sculpted "wedding tackle" is around a foot. He puts Michelangelo's "David" to shame.

34. __ Bath & Beyond: BED

35. Zap with a beam: LASE

36. Equally matched: EVEN

38. __ En-lai: CHOU

39. Iron-rich blood pigment: HEME. Slowly figured this out from the related words - hematoma, hemaglobin and so on. In UK English, we complicate matters, originally using the dipthong spelling "hæma..." and then, completely true to the "why don't we complicate spelling?" edict, the expanded "haema".

42. Portent: SIGN

43. Giggly sound: TE-HEE

45. "Don't you agree?": ISN'T IT?

46. Resides: DWELLS

48. 1556-1605 Mogul emperor: AKBAR

49. Screwball comedy: FARCE

51. Celestial red giant: S-STAR

52. Director Welles: ORSON

54. Like good Scotch: AGED. It never goes bad, unlike wine aged too long, but it disappears, evaporating into the ether, the annual 2% loss known as "the angel's share". That's 29 million gallons of Scotch evaporating out of the barrels of Scottish distilleries every year. Those angels are having a PAR-TEY!

56. LaBeouf of "Transformers" films: SHIA

57. Informal contraction: AIN'T

58. Toll rd.: TPKE. The geek in me knows it as an acronym for Threshold Public Key Encryption.

60. Prohibition: BAN. A good job it didn't happen in Scotland otherwise those angels would have to go find something useful to do.

Needed the reveal to get the theme. EYE before IDE was my only Wite-Out moment. Nicely done Mr. "Church." Steve, did you make up that expression? Never heard it called "wedding tackle" before. You could've finished, "Check, check, check, mate."

CHESS: It was the musical home of Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley and Dale Hawkins to name a few.

BATTLESHIP: There's a conundrum regarding the Battleship Texas. It's falling apart. It can't be repaired where it sits. It's likely to sink if they try to move it to a shipyard. It doesn't get many visitors where it's located now, so if they move it, and if it doesn't sink, and if they can get it repaired, it'll need a new home.

I'm far from well yet. The aftermath of sepsis, internal bleeding, and various other ills have left me too weak to walk, so I'm in rehab for a couple weeks to recoop. (It's even worse than being in a car lot to recoupe!) But I was finally strong enough to open my laptop today and do the puzzle. Did Tuesday become Thursday while I've been gone?

If your city is STRICKEN with CHECKERS,Skin turning to white and black squares,Some JOKER, you can bet,With MASTER MIND-set Is giving CHESS-pains to heart-felt racist cares!

There once was a LOST girl named ELLIEWho took all her queues from the telly.One day she went AWOLWhen a commercial said "PLAY ballAt Citizens Bank Park in Philadellie!"

Thank you Kristian House for a great mental workout this morning. At first pass I thought this one would be impossible without help , but I kept at it and managed to get er done. I fooled around with Yanked and Yaker before seeing JERKED and JOKER would work .Guessed right at RODAN AKBAR andKAGAN. Thanks for the review Steve.

Time to start cleaning out the garden . Lots of Onions and Potatoes to share again this year .

FIR with no erasures, maybe my first on a Thursday. But I DNK ELLIE, RODAN, CHESS, NATE or AKBAR. I knew Nixon's CHECKERS speech, but had to dredge up why it was so named.

Last month I was driving around Amish country northeast of Lancaster, PA and encountered what appeared to be a huge distribution center with a simple sign proclaiming ACME. I wanted to take a picture, but the road wasn't quite deserted and there wasn't a nearby place to turn around. But I thought about that BAD APPLE Roadrunner the rest of the afternoon.

Isn't the GOAT an acronym for Greatest Of All Time? I wonder if Tom Brady knows that the Cubs used it first. He'll be deflated if he finds out.

IIRC, our own sun is destined to become a red giant. Life on earth will be long-gone by then. Except, maybe, cockroaches and alligators.

We're deciding whether to evacuate. All the Navy's ships have put to sea. There won't be anything life threatening, but soothing Zoe through 18 hours of thunderstorms isn't my idea of a good time.

Thanks for the fun, easy-ish puzzle Kristian. My favorites were "one who is rotten to the core" for BAD APPLE and "ox tail" for IDE. And thanks to Steve for another fun review. I used to sail a lot in the LA/LB harbor. The Cabrillo Beach area was nicknamed "hurricane gulch" for its great sailing wind.

Proper names will slow me down every time: Lost, Rodan, Chess, Axiom, Goat, Olmecs, and Akbar. I never heard of some of these games and was completely in the dark about the theme, until the reveal. It was fun to see Oink again so soon and, also, Nerts, which we also saw recently, I believe. My favorite C/A was Ox tail=Ide.

Thanks, Kristian, for a Thursday challenge and thanks, Steve, for the fun and interesting tour.

Owen, good to see you back. Best wishes for continued improvement and a soon-to-come return to your home.

FLN

TX Ms, nice to hear from you; don't be such a stranger! (I think we agree on Plushenko's "performance.")

Tonight is the kick off - literally and figuratively to the 100th season of NFL.I saw this video- which made me chuckle with Brett Favre and the SNL superfanthrowbacks of "Da Bears".... Especially their "Alexa" named "Mary Pat". Amusingeven if you're not a Packer or Bear fan.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUnLwM1JfKI

Finally got it all unaided but not before having to change 'yanked' and 'Aztec' to JERKED and OLMECS. Then MASTERMINDS fell in nicely. Got the gimmick with CHESS. REED - Seems akin to Reet; which is L. German for thatch (material).

Musings -Back to my pencil. I would have had many ink “write-overs” today, e.g. OXEYE-Turned down two subbing jobs to golf today-Breathes there a math teacher who didn’t use BATTLESHIP to teach coordinates -Batman’s campy TV JOKER devolved into filmdom’s psychopath-My doctor - “Gary, get your shingles shot! You do not want to be STRICKEN with that disease!”-Robert Frost famously deviated from the beaten PATH-Is one gender more prone to REHASH old issues than the other?-Which Supreme Court Justices agree with each other the most often?-What Bond film had him breathing through a REED underwater to escaped detection?

I did three puzzles this morning so I am not sure where they began and ended. I have been a frequent guest at the Apple store this past week. . . . One of the more interesting learning moments was that Apple offers seminars (?) that perhaps no one is paying any attention to. Poor instructor. I had days like that when I was teaching, but the noise level in my classroom was never that high. ;-)

I struggled today with the SE Central. I didn't know or recall NERTS, and I wanted Mars so badly for S STAR that I couldn't move. Finally, BATTLESHIP saved me. Thanks for the fun Kristian. Steve, your walk through was perfect.

I was surprised to see Tuesday's shout out to Emma Bovary et moi. Tres amusant!

Have a great day. I have to finish moving info from my old iPad to my new one. The TWO is deader than a door nail (What does that really mean anyway...?), and since it stopped updating long ago, my ID and password never changed. I know a number of you would find this a spectacularly exciting challenge, but I'd rather be knitting!!!! My husband thinks I am a genius at this. Not so--just persistent. I have to have and Federal Court Order to stand near the Genius Bar at Apple!

Just back from a delightful vacation down the shore at David's Wildwood Crest condo. The weather was perfect, clear, breezy, warm enough, but not hot. We were there from Saturday until Wednesday because that is how much leave Alan had.This puzzle seemed quite crunchy, but FIR. I need to get back in the groove.Shia and Nate were perps with the A being a natick which I wagged. Whew! New to me: Cardiff Giant, Chess record company and ELLIE Kemper.Is Chequers analogous to Camp David? I presume Chequers is more luxurious. ISN'T IT?We used to play Battleship. Here is NERTS again.I wondered why the World Series ring had a goat. I LIU. I forgot about the Curse of the Billy Goat. curse Stay safe, Bob B, Jinx and all who are in harm's way with Dorian. Owen, glad to see that you are up for writing poetry. I am wishing you as quick a successful recovery as possible, one step at a time, every day bringing improvement. Keep the faith.I see that Bed, Bath and Beyond is in freefall.I am taking a post vacation easy day to get back into real life.

Well, I was happy to be able to slowly work my way through this puzzle, except for the top left corner. Like others, I had YANKED and AZTECS and was never able to fix that, since I've never heard of OLMECS. But even though I've also never heard of RODAN and AKBAR, perps helped me with those--and I happily remembered KAGAN's appointment to the Supreme Court. So the puzzle was fun, many thanks, Kristian. I did never get the theme because I just don't know those games, so thanks for the explanation, Steve.

Thank you, Kristian House for the entertaining grid which I completed while waiting for my lab work. I discovered Thursday is a good day to go there; it's not too crowded and I was done in less than an hour.

I have to love a puzzle that starts with Spanish, AGUA, and hand up for AZTEC before OLMECS and although CHECKERS is the only one of the GAMES I've played, I found the rest. At my daughter's home last weekend I saw the tall stack of board games they have, including all those in the puzzle though I don't recall if they have CHESS.

What a clever theme and the split reveal was easy to find.

I remembered NERTS from recently and though I never saw LOST, it perped nicely. NATE is another unknown though I've seen and like the show, Mom. ELLIE is a stranger to me as well.

Drat! I had RONAN instead of RODAN and I know USDA. Just carelessness.

CSO to Spitz at AFT and BATTLESHIP though I can't recall if his was that kind of SHIP.

Interesting about the HOAX. I'll have to LIU.

OwenKL:It's great to see you back and in good poetic form, too. I'm sorry your recovery is so slow but hope it ameliorates with more time.

Have a fantastic day, everyone and if you are in Dorian's way, please take cover!

I liked this puzzle, especially its Ox Tail. Mr. House must have worked hard to make that clever theme work. Excellent job. Some proper names I knew and some I didn't. Wanted ASHOK before AKBAR became disinterred. I guess ROVE is also a proper name. DWELLS makes me think of the song Heartbreak Hotel.

Lucina, from last night, I have been pronouncing Penelope correctly for over 40 years, but when I was younger I did think it was pronounced PEEN-a-lope. I used to mispronounce many many words when I was little, mostly, I think, because I read a lot but didn't have anybody read aloud to me.

I was going to link an online battleship gamefor those that like to play with themselves,but since flash is being demoted, I guess we will have to waitfor HTML5 to catch up...(hmm, parsing the above may be problematic)(I was referring to the solo online Battleship game)(nerts!)

Thanks Kristian for the puzzle. I got 11d early which made 28d (and each game) near cake. I've played all the games in the grid growing up. CHESS is the only one I still play (assuming a formidable opponent); I have three chess sets, a normal wood one, an alabaster and onyx one from Cairo, and one DW picked up while in China.

Wonderful expo Steve. I especially appreciated not needing to look up the backstory on Cardiff Giant. //I'm hoping you're not pulling my leg [I needn't need be born this minute :-)]

I don't mean to BRAG, but RODAN (misspent youth), LOST (DW), KLINK (ibid misspent), and NATE came easy [it wasn't his big-brother Rob. Another bit of talents that came out of Jon Stewart's Daily Show. Stewart is the Lorn Michaels of basic-cable :-)]

Jinx - you added to my anxiety about everything, including Sol, that can kill us! I need a release [wait, that really didn't help :-)].

D-O: it was knowing CHESS was Chuck Berry's label (well, that have having sussed the theme) that let me take the leap of faith with just --ESS.

Inanehiker - tonight is also the kick-off of Friday Night Lights (don't quibble, it's our 1st home game and we are now sharing a stadium with #2 Katy [they the Friday]). Anyway, as puny as I am, I'm still going so as to watch Youngest dance at 1/2-time.

Lucina @ 1317 - Thanks for the SO. I was on a DD - a destroyer (Fletcher Class.) A BATTLESHIP is a BB. (Iowa is BB-61). They are a much heavier ship with thick armor protection around all the key spaces. BB's were decommissioned throughout the entire length of my service (from 1959 until 1982.). BB's were brought back into service during the Reagan years and decommissioned after the 1st Gulf war.

All four Iowa class BB's can be visited; Wisconsin at Norfolk, Missouri at Pearl, New Jersey at Camden, NJ and Iowa at Los Angeles, I believe. I have toured the Wisconsin and NewJersey.

My hand is up, way up, for staying with YANKED & AZTECS for way longer than I should have. But I finally YANKED them (& REG) outta there when MAITENTING made no sense whatsoever. And so I won my Ta~ DA! after all!The OLMECS aren't as readily remembered as Aztecs and Maya, but they deserve honors as the earliest known civilization in Meso-America--going back as early as 1500 BC, in roughly the same period as the Mycenaean Greek culture.

Great to see Owen back, and if not on his feet at least on his game! We count our blessings each time the muse works his hand--producing such as his two bright verses today.~ OMK____________DR: One mirror-side diagonal today. Too many vowels to afford a decent anagram. We're stuck with either Athenian gathering places landscaped with blackthorn bushes, OR, marketplaces specializing in selling plum drupes. Either way these are..."SLOE AGORAE"!(Pretty lame, eh...?_

Thanks Kristian and Steve. I enjoyed the puzzle and write up. I think I've played all of the games.

I never mispronounced Penelope as PEEN-a-lope but as a kid, I used to mispronounce Yosemite as yos-eh-mite. Years ago, I was reading a Looney Tunes comic book with grandson Jordan and I chuckled when he mispronounced Yosemite Sam the same way.

I really enjoyed hearing Rocket 88 again. I liked the car and I love that old-fashioned rock and roll. Who needs more than three chords?

Say, is "Endeavor" coming back? I hope so. Has Sidney Chambers been replaced on "Grantchester" for good? I'll miss him.

I assume the GOAT was symbolic of the "scapegoat" of Judaica. Perhaps the Cubs could have actually chased down a goat in Wrigley and slit it's throat before a packed house and WGN ratings off the charts..We thought of something similar for Bill Buckner at Fenway But Billy selfishly declined.

Ox tail=Ide? Expliquez s'il vous plait?

I had the same yanked/aztec mess as Spitz , OMK etal*

We had a lot of NERTs talk the other day. Perhaps Saturday which some skip

Thank you for the suggestions; I now have a few small bowls filled with grape juice and one with sweetened leftover coffee and really, really hope it works!

Bill G:For a long time I also pronounced Yosemite the same way! Your experience as well as Jayce's and mine emphasize how important is reading aloud to children. My mother used to recite nursery rhymes which she had memorized as a child and that helped me and my siblings learn English.

Bill G, yeah, it looks like Sidney Chambers is gone and that new guy is now the Grantchester vicar. It will take me some time to get used to him, and I suspect you feel the same. It looks as if season 1 was almost entirely devoted to telling us about the new vicar's background and to everybody (Leonard, Geordie, Mrs. C.) getting used to the new situation. I do look forward to season 2.

I sure hope Endeavour is coming back, but my internet searches have not revealed anything, so I don't know.

It does look as if there is a final season of Poldark coming up at the end of this month.

Late to the party today after a busy day. Thanks for the fun, Kristian and Steve.I got the theme and saw the GAMEs (all of which I have played) but had several inkblots.

Since I did have JERKED already correctly entered, and had moved from Mayans to Incans, my "real cutup" was a JIBER (which I thought was a meh!) JOKER, KLINK, and OLMECS (we have had them before but they did not remain in my memory bank) made better sense.Then, I did not know GOAT, and thought it might be Gait (short for Gaitor) which made me change LOST to Last and gave me Mister something. Ah, what a tangled web we weave! (but maybe we can catch your bug Lucina!)

I really wanted Ox tail to be EXX. I want it even more when I see OMK's reference to the game - there is usually an EXX where you pin that tail. (But I did get IDE on my second try.)

Good to see you back Owen. Wishing you a steady recovery.Stay safe all of you in Dorian's path. It is forecast to hit Atlantic Canada this weekend and even with its diminished force, it may still do significant damage.